Diversity Matters  

As go the schools, so goes your company. And country.

Last Friday, May 21st, the Texas State Board of Education approved new social studies standards that could shape the course of education for millions of U.S. children over the coming decades.  Why does this matter to your business?

Changes reflect the views of a highly political, elected body – the Texas State Board of Education (TSBE).   Social studies revisions, like math and science revisions before them, reflect TSBE’s long-term efforts to inject an extreme political agenda into the core curriculum of Texas public schools, K-12.

The first round of changes was approved in March 2010. Among other immoderate ideological planks, these changes reject religious freedom, remove Latino role models, promote creationism, minimize mistreatment of minorities, defend McCarthyism and control the exact words that can be used to discuss concepts like “capitalism”.¹

Efforts to dissuade the TSBE came from the business community, educators, academics, legislators, and social justice advocates in Texas and across the nation.

Business leaders in south Texas expressed concern about ideology-based education and worked to oust one board member from their district in the January primary.²  Two weeks ago, the largest school district in Texas joined opposition to the proposed standards with a resolution by its board of trustees.³  1200 historians and scholars from Texas universities registered their concern in an open letter released on May 17th.⁴  Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, testified against the standards on Wednesday before the vote.

Legislators from the state’s Black and Latino caucuses had pushed for a delay in the vote, an effort which also failed. In a call with reporters before his testimony in Austin last week, NAACP president Ben Jealous said, “[These revisions will] lock kids into the dark ages, where the whole world's been turned upside down – where Thomas Jefferson is not a founding father, there’s no good reason to talk about [the first black Justice] Thurgood Marshall, and Joe McCarthy is a hero."⁵  

Why does this matter?

Why does this matter to anyone outside of Texas? 

Because the size of the Texas market traditionally dictates the content in textbooks that publishers publish.  This bears reiterating: textbook publishers have historically chosen to publish content that conforms to Texas standards.

Why does this matter to your business? 

Because today's students are tomorrow's workforce.  We know from decades of research that good diversity practices – which includes diversity of ideas – improve your bottom line and bad ones can cost you big.⁶   There’s just one catch:  full inclusion and critical thinking skills, both of which are undermined by these curriculum changes, are essential components of these practices.

Coincidence or cause and effect? 

Also last week, the Texas Association of Business released a report entitled,  “Dream Big: Educating a Globally Competitive Workforce.”   Among its findings:

• “…far too many Texas students are unprepared to enter a globally competitive workforce” (p. 1).  

• “ Texas is not only behind the best performing countries in educational attainment, but… is nearly ten points behind the U.S. average. Only seven states have done a worse job than Texas in developing a well-educated young workforce, those workers who are farthest from retirement age”  (p. 2).

The report also notes the rapid growth rate in communities of color while finding that these young people are among those who fare worst in the Texas educational system. 

What can you do? 

• Educate yourself.  Stay informed. Delve into issues early.
  
• Create a climate of inquiry.  Discuss different ideas and encourage questioning. Relate the importance of critical thought to skills that make your business work. 
  

• Stand up.  Encourage members of your own State Board of Education to authorize curricula designed by subject matter experts rather than by those promoting a political agenda.

• Make your voice heard. Contact textbook publishers and encourage them to reject the Texas standards for other states.  Urge them to use new technologies in printing and publishing to produce texts that are free of bias for other states.  
• Know the issues. Watch out for advertising that simplifies complex subjects. Take time to investigate a candidate's position on multiple matters and think about how each of these influence the many factors that affect your current operations and long-term sustainability. 
  

• Get involved.  Give your employees time to be involved.  Whether you think you have a personal or professional connection to public education or to politics, these institutions in the U.S. ultimately influence how citizens understand and uphold the responsibilities of a democracy.  


Be The Change
May-June 2010